Bush approval increases within the margin of error; media overstates gains ... again

On December 8, CNN mentioned a new CBS-New York Times poll showing a slight increase in President Bush's approval ratings no fewer than seven times: on American Morning (three times); Your World Today; Live From ... ; The Situation Room; and Lou Dobbs Tonight.

During the December 8 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs exclaimed:

{A} new opinion poll shows President Bush's approval rating has bounced back now from historic lows, and bounced back strongly. The main reason appears to be that voters are feeling more optimistic about the direction of the economy.

Business always wants to talk up the economy this time of year, so people will go buy alot of crap they don't need. I think Bush was intentionally piggy-backing onto the phenomenon last week with his economy speech.

I think it's bullshit, in other words. I expect the polls will reflect that in January.

that they were still low and that people still didn't trust him any more on the war and so on.

A 7 point bounce is pretty big and makes me sick. The day he talked about the economy he stayed quiet about the 10 marines he knew were dead.

Dobbs did something else I never heard him do. When talking about leak investigation he usually compares it to shorter length of Watergate. He did again but then noted that to put it in perspective the WhiteWater investigation went 6 years and cost over 70 million dollars. He said Fitzgerald has spent $800,000 so far.It drove me crazy when he compared it to Watergate. THEN the Republicans came down on the president, it ended because he resigned.So glad he put it next to what Starr did to Clinton.

NOTHING has changed that much for his approval ratings to go up. Anyone got an extra couple hundred bucks in their pocket to spend on anything else but bills? I don't. My financial situation is as shitty as ever. F-bush and his rightwing whores propping him up.The ass kissing lives on.

>>>Dobbs did something else I never heard him do. When talking about leak investigation he usually compares it to shorter length of Watergate. He did again but then noted that to put it in perspective the WhiteWater investigation went 6 years and cost over 70 million dollars. He said Fitzgerald has spent $800,000 so far.<<<

Are you sure this is what you seen on the December 8th edition of the Lou Dobbs show? Is it possible it was somewhere else? I was so shocked when I seen your post I wanted to read the transcript for myself and here is all I found:

<snip>New developments tonight in the CIA White House leak investigation. Today, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald questioned "TIME" magazine reporter Viveca Novak. Fitzgerald declined to comment to reporters, but it is believed Fitzgerald wants information about conversation between Viveca Novak and attorney Robert Luskin, the attorney for presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Rove, of course, remains under investigation. The vice president's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, has been indicted.

Fitzgerald's investigation has now gone on for 708 days. That's more than twice as long as Watergate.

Still ahead, the White House weighs in on the deadly shooting controversy at the Miami International Airport. We'll have the very latest for you....

Nothing about Clinton or the amount of time wasted on Whitewater there? Just the same old right wing talking point about how much time Fitzgerald is taking compared to Watergate. What gives? Are you sure it wasn't some other show besides the December 8th Lou Dobbs you were watching?

Yes, here's the transcript of it from Friday. I still recalled it wrong, it says 52 million here. I thought he'd said 70.I was so glad he brought Starr's waste up. Makes Fitzgerald sound very thrifty.

Valerie Plame, the CIA official whose outing in the press sparked the White House CIA leak investigation, today left her job at the CIA. Plame, who has worked at the CIA since the 1980s, reportedly says she can no longer work effectively. The CIA leak scandal broke in 2003 when Plame's name appeared in an article written by columnist Robert Novak.

The original source of the leak is still not known. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of who leaked Plame's identity is now in its 709th day. To put that in perspective, the entire Watergate investigation lasted a mere 288 days. But the CIA leak investigation is still well behind that of the Whitewater investigation.

Compared to Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation, Fitzgerald's probe has lasted almost two years and has cost U.S. taxpayers less than $800,000. The Whitewater probe, which lasted a total of six years, cost taxpayers more than $52 million. Still ahead here, new questions into what caused last night's fatal plane crash at Chicago's Midway Airport. We'll have a live report for you next.

...bounced back strongly. Perhaps you missed that part? This has nothing to do with him reporting what we don't necessarily want to hear. This has everything with him reporting the story in such a way as to unfairly sway the weak minded among us.

I guess my point is,how was the poll worded,who were the participants(was it a randomly selected group,or was it subscribers,residents of a certain geographic area)etc.I agree that there are few,if any,impartial hosts for the mainstream media.Dobbs has been,for the most part,fair.

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